GERD: Renaissance Dam Should Cultivate Cooperation in the Region

Apr 23, 2021 | Ashok Swain
View Original

After being the Chairman of the African Union in February 2021, the President of Congo Félix Tshisekedi got engaged in the mediation of the long-running dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan. He had hosted a meeting of the foreign ministers of all the three Blue Nile Basin countries at Kinshasa on 4-5 April 2021, hoping to help them reach a “win-win” agreement.

Although the meeting was extended for a few hours on 6 April, disappointing the proponents of “African Solutions to African problems” failed to make any progress. Immediately after the unsuccessful Kinshasa meeting, both Egypt and Sudan have reiterated their “all options open” warnings. At the same time, Ethiopia is adamant about going ahead with the 2nd year filling of the Dam in July, even without any agreement.

Conflicts over the sharing of the Blue Nile are not new. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the river has been the source of political tensions and low-intensity conflicts among three basin countries. Way back in 1985, Egypt’s then Foreign Minister Dr. Boutros Boutros Ghali had famously remarked, “the next war in the Middle East will be fought over water, not politics”.

The war over the water is yet to take place, but, no doubt, the ongoing construction of the massive hydropower Renaissance Dam by Ethiopia has raised that specter again.